PV Sindhu shines but India lose 1-4 to Denmark at Sudirman Cup

Gold Coast: Star shuttler P V Sindhu’s win was the only bright spot on a dismal day as India suffered a 1-4 loss to Denmark in their opening match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship.

Up against two-time runners-up Denmark, India came a cropper after they lost the first three ties — mixed doubles, men’s singles and men’s double –, to go down 0-3 in the five- match rubber.

Starting the proceedings, the experienced Ashwini Ponnappa and the young Satwiksairaj Rankireddy paired up and displayed good fighting spirit before going down 15-21 21-16 17-21 to the London Olympics bronze-medallist combo of Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen in the mixed doubles match that lasted an hour and 10 minutes here.

A lot was expected from World No.13 Ajay Jayaram after his recent success against Viktor Axelsen at the Malaysia Open but the Mumbai shuttler capitulated 12-21 7-21 in just 27 minutes as India slipped to 0-2.